The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 328

Yen,. 9-11.-Past and prMent. We have here- I. A PAST OF 61'1(-A P&ESEXT OF RETRIDUTION. (Vera. 9, 10.) Israel's sin was: 1 Qf old date. "Thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah" (cf. on eh. ix. 9). The sin of Gibeah was an early and outstanding instance of wickedneBB. It may have take:i place not long after "the days of the elders which overlived Joshua" (Josh. xxiv. 31 ), an,i so have been the first public mark of the new departure in transgression. ~- Steadily persisted in. "There they stood." From that da.y on, a strain of deep c0rruption bad run through the history of Israel. 3. As yet unavenged. "The battle in Gibeah a;_!ainst the children of iniquity did not overtake them." Fierce as was the shu;:;bter on both sides iu that day of Gibeah, it had not sufficed to eradicate this evil strain. A seed by corruption survived which steadily propagated itself, a.nd had now increased till it included the whole nation. The punishment of this sin was yet to come. 4. To be avenged now. "It is in my desire that I should chastise [or, •bind'] them ; and the people shall be gathered against them, in the bindiog them for their two tranS!cJ'essions." The double sin for which Israel was to be punished wa.s their departure from God, with its attendant idolatry and resultant moral corruption; a.nd their attitude of antagonism to the hoUBe of David, to which they ought to have been willing to return at the earliest possible moment. This long-accumulating national sin God was now determined to punish, and was gathering the peoples to execute his decree, as before the tribes had assembled to avenge the sin of Gibeab, There is an entail of sin which tl,e descendauts of the wicked can only cut off by repentance (Matt. xxiii. 35, 36). II. A PAST OF EASE ..U,"ll PLE~"TY-A PRESENT OF HA.RD SERVICE. (Ver. 11.) 1. Past comfo1·t. The people of Israel had a fat portion, and hnd grown accustomed to the life of ease and luxury. Like the trained heifer, which treads out the corn as a. matter of habit, and feeds at its ease as it does so, they loved their prosperity, and took it as a thing of course. It is easy to settle in prosperity. We take our good things a.a though they came tons by right. We form ha.bits in accordance with them. We survey the situation with lazy complacency, a.nd conclude that this happy fortune must be what we were born to. 2. A present yoke. "I (have) passed over her fair neck.n Already God haci. t.augbt Isre.el the vanity of her complacency by subjecting her to the tribute of the kings of Assyria. This, however, had failed to lead to repentance; so worse wa.s no1v in store. 3. Approa,ching hard service. "I will yoke Ephraim; Judah shall plough; Jacob shall break. his cloda." The ima.ge is taken from severe field labour, as coutrnsted with the easy work of the threshing heifer. Sin. ends in bondage; in hard service ; in the yoke and goad. The way of the transgressor is hard (Prov. :xiii. 15). There may be ease and luxury at first, but the end is that he "labours and is heavy laden" (Matt. xi. 26).-J. 0. Vers. 1.2-15.-Moral huabandry. !Bra.el's duty is here contrasted with their practice. I. THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY lsBAEL OUGHT TO HAVE FOLLOWED. (Ver. 12.) 1. Pi·eparation of the soil. Israel is first bid to sow; then, going a step further ha.ck, the peuple are commanded, "Break up your fallow ground." If fruits of righteousness are to bt produced, it needs, not simply a. weeding and recultivation of the old soil-the natural, unrenewed heart-but the preparation. of a soil entirely new. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; a.nd that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John iii. 6). Ezekiel, accordingly, promises that God wiH take away the hard and stony heart from lsra.el, and will give them a heart of flesh (Ezek. xxxvi. 26). 'l'he first need of our i;ouls i~ renewal. Yet we have the duty laid on us of seeking this renewal, and of co-operating (by pra~·er, ui;e of means of grace, faith, repentance) in bringing it a.bout, CIJ, XI. 1-12.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 329